Hi everyone.

This post is to update you on the progress of the recent upgrade, currently still underway.

UPGRADE PROGRESS

The upgrade, at this point, is about 90% complete. Most functionality has been restored, with exception of the Spellcheck, the Staff Directory, and the Sponsor Directory. It is expected that most of this functionality will be restored within a week. The possible exception is the Spellcheck, which has proven more difficult to integrate than in the past.

The "skin"-- the look and feel of the forum-- has, for the most part, been restored. The only areas still requiring attention are the posting screens, and the profile screens. These adaption of these areas to our skin should also shape up in the next week or two, time permitting.

NAVIGATION REORGANIZATION

The top navigation has undergone a slight reorganization, with a "More" menu being added. The site statistics have been moved over to this menu, and several new pages have been added:

• History. This page lists the history of America's Debate, covering subjects from the reason for the site's founding to the present.
• Timeline. This page displays a graphical representation of significant Milestones in America's Debate history.
• Advertise. This page lists our advertising rates and available placements. Please consider advertising to help support the site.
• Sponsorship. Hey, we can dream, right?

UPDATED PAGES

Several pages located in the top navigation have also been updated, including:

• Contact. The Contact page has been updated with the most recent and accurate information for America's Debate. If you wish to contact us, please visit this page.
• Donate. The donate page has been completely rewritten. It now includes specific benefits and feature enhancements that Sponsors receive. If you are not yet a Sponsor, or if a significant amount of time has passed since your last contribution, please consider making a small financial contribution to America's Debate!

ACCOUNT ENHANCEMENT - Larger Avatar Allowances!

With the pervasiveness of broadband internet access, we have decided to increase avatar size limits for most members. If you are in the Members member group, your avatar allowance has increased from 64x64 (20K) to 90x90 (35K). If you are a Sponsor or a Staff Member, your avatar allowance has increased from 90x90 (40K) to 120x120 (50K). Enjoy!

ENHANCED FEATURES

Many features throughout the site have been enhanced or improved:

Personal Profile Portal
The Profile page has been completely redesigned, and now includes the following features:

• Friends list - manage your friends for easier PMing, to see if your
  friends are currently online and display your friends on your profile.
• Profile comments - allow visitors to leave comments on your profile.
  You can set to moderate all new comments before they're shown.
• Recent visitors - recent visitors are shown on your profile.
• Your content - show your recent posts on your profile
• Personal statement - add a short bio for others to read
• Easy access to edit your location, age and IM details

New Text Editor
New Style
The text editors, both standard and rich text (WYSIWYG), are now more intuitive and faster to load. Clutter has been reduced with new dynamic menus.

Switch
You can now switch between the rich text editor and the standard editor without the need to reload the page or visit your User Control Panel.

Per-Forum Capability to remember sort options
There is now a checkbox under the forum sorting options in each forum allowing you to select your preferred sort options, and have these options be remembered when you leave the forum and come back (or when you read a topic and return to the forum, for example). This option uses a cookie to remember your individual selections.

Multi-choice polls + Ability to create a 'poll only'
You can now create multiple-choice polls. There is an additional checkbox next to the question line(s) in a poll form so you can do this on a per-question basis (e.g. - you could have one multiple choice question, and one single-choice only question).

Additionally, you can once again create a topic as a "poll only," disallowing other members from replying to the poll, but still allowing them to vote.

New BBCode
Superscript and Subscript BBCode has been added (with clickable buttons).

Reason for Edit
When editing a post, you now have an option to include a "reason for edit" for your posts.

Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

Feel free to start a new topic in Comments and Suggestions with any questions, comments, or constructive criticism that you may have!

Lastly, I would like to take a moment to thank you for your patience while the recent upgrades have been implemented. Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Mike